Free Republic

The discovery of two mass graves by the end of last week in the Lebanese town of Anjar a close distance from the previous general headquarters of the Syrian intelligence contributed to the reopening of the file of detainees and those who went missing during the Lebanese civil war which lasted between 1975- 1990. The committee of the families of the missing and kidnapped in Lebanon called on the Lebanese authorities to open all mass graves which have recognized sites. The spokeswoman for the committee Widad Helwani said that the committee directed the Lebanese authorities in 2000 several to mass...

BEIRUT: A local investigation was launched Wednesday into the abandoned bones found scattered in the Anjar mass graves, a discovery the Public Prosecutor for the area called "shameful." "I have sent officers to investigate and gather as much information as possible and then I am personally going to the mass graves on Thursday to see for myself what went wrong," said Prosecutor-General Abdullah Bitar told The Daily Star. Bitar is responsible for the case of the Anjar mass graves where remains of an estimated 28 bodies were found. This reporter, along with the farmer who lives by the mass graves...

Decision to uncover mass graves taken at the top 'Otherwise the lebanese army would not be part of the digging process' BEIRUT: Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad stressed Monday that last weekend's discovery of mass graves in Anjar had taken place after a government decision to uncover the atrocities. "I want you to know that the discovery of those mass graves only came after a political decision," she said. "If such a decision had not been made the Lebanese Army would've never been sent to patrol and be part of the digging process." Addressing former Lebanese detainees once held in...

ANJAR, Lebanon (AP) - On a small hill overlooking this border town, once a stark symbol of Syrian power in Lebanon, white-gloved forensic experts comb the earth for grisly reminders of this country's brutal past. Authorities have known about the mass grave for years but they have only now begun to exhume it, digging up 28 bodies over the weekend in a new challenge to Syria. The site is near the former headquarters of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon. Syria vacated the headquarters - notorious for the torture of prisoners - when it withdrew its soldiers from Lebanon in April,...

Lebanese forces say they have excavated a suspected third mass grave. The find has come a day after they unearthed 25 decomposed corpses in an eastern town that was the headquarters of Syrian intelligence for three decades. Security forces are digging for more bodies at the third site near two other mass graves close to an old onion farm in the eastern town of Anjar. The farm was used by Syrian intelligence as a notorious interrogation centre. Security sources say the 25 bodies found so far are mostly only skeletons in scraps of underwear. The bodies had been in the...

BEIRUT: Troops exhumed the remains of 25 bodies from a mass grave near a former Syrian military base in eastern Lebanon yesterday, while an official said 12 more buried bodies - most believed to be Lebanese soldiers - were removed from a grave near Beirut recently for DNA testing. The identities of the bodies were not immediately known, but one security official said some appeared to be Lebanese soldiers killed during an October 1990 Syrian military offensive that defeated Christian-commanded Lebanese Army units of then interim Lebanese prime minister Michael Aoun. Residents of the eastern Bekaa Valley town of Anjar,...

ANJAR, Lebanon, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Lebanese forces excavated a suspected third mass grave on Sunday, a day after unearthing 25 decomposed corpses in an eastern town that was the headquarters of Syrian intelligence for three decades. Security forces were digging for more bodies at the third site near two other mass graves close to an old onion farm in the eastern town of Anjar, long used by Syrian intelligence as a notorious interrogation centre. Security sources said the 25 bodies found so far -- most now only skeletons in scraps of underwear -- had lain in the shallow graves...

BEIRUT,(Agencies) - Lebanon has asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend for six months the mandate of an inquiry into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told Annan in a phone call on Saturday that the Lebanese government wanted the inquiry to continue for six months after its Dec. 15 deadline, and be open to further extensions, a statement from his office said. Lebanon's government agreed on Thursday to ask the United Nations to continue its probe into the Feb. 14 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, but U.N. diplomats said the...